Blue Papers aims to inspire new approaches to water, culture, heritage and sustainable development. We believe historical and historiographical analysis can help shift the discourse from strategies focused on short-term gains to long-term approaches that consider both historical dynamics and the potential consequences of future developments. An analytical focus on water – its materiality and flows – can help shift the discourse from disconnected, monodisciplinary approaches to spatial, social and cultural analysis, connecting multiple scales, diverse stakeholders and local characteristics over time. ... Read more

Bringing local plants and materials back into our daily food practices and built environment is not just more sustainable. It also reconnects us to our history, culture and territory, highlighting our longstanding relationship with rivers. Our new report explores the impact of the European project Bauhaus of the Seas Sails in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital city, a dense urban area located right next to one of the largest estuarine wetlands in Europe. In the project, artists, designers, chefs, local associations and policymakers came together to test two “drop solutions”: Regenerative Menus and Blue Makerspace. We examine how the project built and expanded its impact over time. Through qualitative analysis, we highlight what made the project successful and which elements are key to applying these solutions elsewhere. This work contributes to our broader efforts to rethink how we evaluate local innovation to support place-based learning and long-term impact. ... Read more

At a time of climate related water system change, the form and function of waterfronts is gaining more attention. The book Waterfront Regeneration in a Time of Climate Change: Recent Japanese and International Experiences, edited by Raffaele Pernice and Tetsuya Yaguchi, brings the case of waterfront regeneration in Japan into a broader global context. Building on an international symposium held at UNSW Sydney in 2022, the book engages a much-needed theme as it brings climate change and particularly water systems into the broader conversation on climate related water system change for coastal cities (SOS Waterfront). [...] ... Read more

This paper presents a critique of city-centric approaches in health and wellbeing planning and offers a conceptual and operational shift towards a territorially grounded paradigm. It argues that focusing on individual cities limits the systemic and relational understanding of health and wellbeing and undermines effective planning responses. We identify three flaws in city-centric planning: spatial-scalar mismatches that obscure where challenges unfold and interventions are needed; urban biases that sideline small, rural, and peripheral places; and functional fragmentation that reinforces siloed, sectoral approaches. In response, we propose what we call ‘Territories of Wellbeing’, a conceptualization that operates across interdependent regional systems. Using the Rhine watershed as a paradigmatic case, we demonstrate how this ‘natural planning region’ offers a productive arena for testing such a framework due to its polycentric structure through its shared river geography, long-standing transboundary governance institutions, and socio-ecological interdependencies. By considering the difficulties in moving beyond city-centric models and the challenges of the territorial approach, we explore and introduce three corrective pathways for planning, Comparability and Transferability, Contextual Sensitivity and Satisfier Differentiation, and Adaptability and Participation. These are practical orientations to make planning frameworks responsive to spatial diversity, dynamic interdependencies, and participatory governance across complex territories. ... Read more

Ghana’s emerging blue economy agenda is examined through an access-focused lens centred on Sekondi-Takoradi and nearby Shama. Ghana’s 2025 national consultation on a draft Blue Economy Strategy frames the ocean as a transformative space for jobs, food security and environmental stewardship, supported by proposals for a Blue Economy Commission and new partnerships. The chapter situates these developments within global geopolitical interest and a crowded field of donors, banks and investors, but foregrounds domestic scepticism regarding the distribution of benefits, drawing on critical scholarship linking blue economy agendas to processes of capital accumulation, territorialization and exclusion. Using Ribot and Peluso’s theory of access, it highlights four dimensions: access to capital, material spaces, labour opportunities and discursive access to shape narratives. Ports, oil and coastal infrastructure reconfigure who controls shorelines and seas, often marginalizing small-scale fishers and local tourism initiatives. Through a Value Case Approach, including the personas of a Sekondi fisherman and a Shama ecotourism developer, the chapter highlights overlapping claims, forms of infrastructural violence and differentiated constraints. It concludes that making Ghana’s blue economy genuinely inclusive requires confronting structural inequalities in access and co-creating strategies with local actors. ... Read more

Planning as a discipline developed in response to some of the challenges that occurred following the Industrial Revolution: health, hygiene or housing. A key field of intervention for the new discipline was infrastructure development for transport and communication in line with evolving technologies. Globalisation and the exchange of commodities around the world led to ever more extensive projects. The shared needs of infrastructural planning went hand in hand with the sharing of ideas and concepts of planning and their exchange around the world. This article explores four examples of European planning and their key actors in four distinct periods through the lens of the global infrastructural turn: the age of rail (1850s to 1910s), the age of motorisation (1910s to 1950s), the age of flight (1950s to 1980s), and the age of increasing digital communication (1980s to 2000s). Understanding the embedded role of infrastructure in planning practice can help promote a system approach much needed to address contemporary challenges in the design of urban spaces. ... Read more

Maritime transportation, a traditionally polluting sector, is engaged in sustainable innovation; advanced detection of marine pollution incidents can help control improvements in this sector. However, coastal and marine environmental governance is increasingly constrained by fragmented monitoring architectures in which environmental, operational, and regulatory datasets remain distributed across institutions and jurisdictions. Comprehensive governance mechanisms that cross the sea–land continuum are limited. Public authorities, port administrations, research institutes, and private operators independently monitor marine pollution, vessel movements, coastal pressures, and urban and ecological risks; however, these data streams remain siloed across organizational, sectoral, and jurisdictional boundaries. The absence of interoperability, real-time exchange, and coordinated analytics generates a gap between monitoring capacity and regulatory effectiveness, resulting in delayed detection of multi-risks, such as pollution incidents. Weak governance and assignment of responsibility and largely reactive enforcement practices further reinforce the problem. Anticipatory interventions are needed to improve coastal and marine sustainability. This paper examines the EMMERA (East Med Cross-border Marine Environmental Risk Assessment through E-Platform Integrated Data Management) platform established by three port authorities as a data-centric intervention designed to address some of these structural limitations. Implemented in port and coastal environments in Cyprus, Greece, and Israel, EMMERA integrates heterogeneous static and dynamic data sources—including satellite observations, administrative records, vessel information, and drone-based monitoring—into a unified operational framework accessible to competent authorities. Through data fusion, cross-validation, and automated anomaly detection combined with targeted drone verification, the platform aims to transform fragmented monitoring streams into coherent, actionable environmental intelligence, strengthening the evidentiary basis for regulatory intervention. The paper presents the platform design and provides a baseline assessment. It argues that EMMERA’s primary contribution lies not in the introduction of additional monitoring tools, but in enabling more effective coastal and marine environmental governance through integrated data infrastructures. EMMERA is proposed as a governance-oriented integrated data infrastructure whose anticipated contribution lies in improving institutional interoperability, risk visibility, and evidence generation for environmental oversight, even as operational effectiveness will require future evaluation following sustained deployment. More broadly, the paper proposes that integrated data architectures can recalibrate environmental governance, shifting emphasis from post hoc documentation toward anticipatory, coordinated, and performance-oriented regulatory practices. ... Read more

Abstract: The dynamic interplay between global maritime flows and the spatial, economic, and social development of port‐city‐regions lies at the heart of this thematic issue. As globalisation accelerates, the relationships between ports, cities, and their surrounding regions become increasingly complex, requiring innovative conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and interdisciplinary collaborations to address both challenges and opportunities. Flows of goods and people shape infrastructural networks and create nodes of logistics and administration in and around nearby cities. They establish specific networks that primarily facilitate transport. Multiple approaches and definitions exist to describe and map these unique spaces. This thematic issue of Ocean and Society aims to advance our understanding of these phenomena by exploring a range of terminologies, typologies, spatial transformations, and examples of sustainable practices across diverse geographic contexts. ... Read more

Planning history as a field is connected to many academic disciplines as well as to multiple spatial practices. Historians, social scientists, planners, educators or designers engage with planning history from their respective perspectives. They study the role of planning in the development of cities and landscapes, they explore the role of policy making or laws on spatial development, they investigate the role of teaching for the discipline of planning and they use historical analysis for future development projects. All of these multiple ways of engaging with planning history exist side-by-side and each has its own reason of being. [...] ... Read more

The much-needed repair and rebuilding of Amsterdam’s historical quay walls and bridges coincides with growing demand for innovation, ranging from improved logistics and energy systems to enhanced biodiversity and climate resilience. These technology-driven transformations are unfolding in the heart of a World Heritage property known for its distinctive architectural and urban character. This article explores the complexities of integrating heritage into transdisciplinary design processes, focusing on the Canal Ring Area inside the Singelgracht. It proposes three axes for planning interventions that draw meaningfully on the past while addressing future needs, including those related to climate change. In particular, the article considers how historical analysis, spatial mapping and narrative-based approaches can strengthen the integration of historic spaces and practices into locally grounded, sustainable, climate-responsive design. ... Read more

The confluence of sea and city has left its mark on urban design, art, and literature. When we talk about port cities, we usually imply urban units defined by a special physical, technical, and cultural relationship with the sea, made possible by port infrastructure. In fact, the functionality of port cities has changed over time, and they have, at various points, been considered safe havens and defence posts. [...] ... Read more

The existence of a long-term past impacts present and future design through the existence of built spaces and long-standing formal or informal institutions. The concept of path dependencies, developed in the political sciences as part of the concept of historical institutionalism (Sorensen 2015, 2017), highlights the role that decisions of the past have on decisions for the future. This impact is particularly significant when it relates to structures that require extensive investment and are designed to last for a long time. The concept of the Longue Durée, introduced by Fernand Braudel (Braudel, 1968), emphasises the relationship between natural conditions and human interaction, creating specific geographies. The concept supports an approach based on understanding earlier typologies and development patterns. It allows for contextualised understanding and avoids uninformed copying and pasting of designs from the past into current cities. It allows designers to identify critical junctures in previous decades and understand the underlying political, social, and cultural contexts of contemporary redevelopment. This influence across time is particularly strong when it has been solidified into concrete or built into extensive and expensive infrastructures, including for water management or ports. ... Read more

Well-being is closely related to questions of housing and planning. Improving liveability has been a key desire for the Japanese architect and planner Nishiyama Uzo, who influenced Japanese design over half a century. Through his writings and design proposals, he influenced a large number of Japanese planners. Starting from the 1930s, Nishiyama promoted an Architecture of Humanism that referenced international ideas including from Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier and Milyutin. He proposed new ideas for the organisation of the urban structure as the basis for living and offered concepts for the form of urban housing. Structuring cities in small units was important for him and aligned with traditional ways of organising the Japanese city. Such an approach was also fundamental for bottom-up community planning that emerged in the 1960s. Overall, Nishiyama's promotion of humanist ideas promoted well-being in line with the form and function of Japanese cities. ... Read more

Blue Papers aims to inspire new approaches to water, culture, heritage and sustainable development. We believe historical and historiographical analysis can help shift the discourse from strategies focused on short-term gains to long-term approaches that consider both historical dynamics and the potential consequences of future developments. An analytical focus on water – its materiality and flows – can help shift the discourse from disconnected, monodisciplinary approaches to spatial, social and cultural analysis, connecting multiple scales, diverse stakeholders and local characteristics over time. ... Read more

Designing water systems – interconnected networks of water-related structures and practices – is not only a matter of technology and economics, but also of history, institutions and culture. Understanding these multiple, overlapping and interconnected spaces and practices requires a holistic approach that contextualizes current projects and helps identify challenges and opportunities. The article introduces a value case approach, including tools and methods that can be used to connect spatial, social and cultural conditions and their change over time. Such comprehensive understanding can potentially be used to facilitate societal change and guide political decision-making. The article first explores the rationale and setup of a value-case approach in the context of the PortCityFutures Center and the work of the UNESCO Chair Water, Ports and Historic Cities. It concludes by introducing key elements and methodological tools. ... Read more